Tag Archive for: Japan

Huge rise in ransomware cyberattacks on Japan firms an extreme threat: police

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This partially altered screenshot shows a message demanding a ransom payment that appeared on a computer attacked by ransomware. (Image courtesy of Trend Micro Inc.)


TOKYO — Cases involving ransomware viruses that demand payments from the users of computers they infect have risen so sharply in Japan that the National Police Agency (NPA) has begun referring to the threat they pose as “extremely serious.”


According to major cyber security software company Trend Micro Inc., in 2020 93 ransomware infections were reported by corporations in Japan — an 80% increase on the previous year. The NPA also received 23 consultations from affected firms and others.


In ransomware attacks, cybercriminals encrypt without warning the internal data of corporations and other entities. They then demand virtual currency or other payment to restore the data. Trend Micro said the quarterly number of reported infections saw a constant rise in 2020, with 23 cases in the April-June period, 24 in July-September, and 32 in October-December.


One major route for attacks is virtual private networks (VPN), which are said to be especially vulnerable. VPNs are often used for teleworking, which has seen a greater uptake amid the coronavirus pandemic.


Katsuyuki Okamoto, a security expert at Trend Micro, explained, “In many past cases, cybercriminals attacked by disseminating viruses via email, but now they’ve come to perform targeted hits from the start.” He said hacking methods are sold on the darknet too, adding, “Attack techniques have spread widely.”





This partially altered screenshot shows a website where information stolen by ransomware was posted. (Image courtesy of Trend Micro Inc.)


The NPA, meanwhile, began keeping totals of ransomware damages from April 2020, and had received 23 consultations from victims in 10 prefectures by December. Police have been investigating the cases on suspicion that electromagnetic records containing unauthorized commands were used — which are actions consistent as crimes using computer viruses — among other charges.


Nine of the cases that have taken place in five prefectures since…

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India Inc third most targeted by malware attacks after US and Japan, report

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Companies in India faced the third highest number of malware attacks after the US and Japan between March and December quarters, according to the latest cyberthreat report by Acronis, a Switzerland based IT and cybersecurity company. A total of 1168 malware attacks were detected per 1000 clients in a month in India during this period.

India also recorded the highest rates of video conferencing attacks with 66% of local companies being targeted by them, while 62% said they were overwhelmed with phishing attacks.

Around 56% of the companies reported a significant increase in IT expenditure to prevent the attacks. According to the report, the increase was twice the global average.

Several Indian organisations including Indian pharmaceutical company Dr Reddy’s, which is working on Russia’s Sputnik V covid-19 vaccine, was hit by a malware attack in October. Edtech firm Whitehat Jr and grocery e-tailer Bigbasket also reported data breaches recently.

“Year 2020 posed a tremendous number of challenges to IT professionals, organizations, and the service providers who support them. What we’ve seen is how quickly bad actors are adjusting their attacks to the new IT landscape,” Stas Protassov, co-founder and Technology President, Acronis, said in a statement.

Further, the Acronis report shows that ransomware detections in India increased by 7.8% in the September quarter alone.

Ransomware attacks have increased since the pandemic as per various other cybersecurity firms. Check Point Research detected a 50% increase in daily average of ransomware attacks in India in September quarter as compared to the first half of 2020. US with 98% increase in attacks was the only country that was ahead of India.

“When it comes to existing solutions and strategies, the current trends in cyberattacks all show that traditional cybersecurity is failing – globally and in India, it’s usually because of weak technologies and human error, which are both avoidable,” Rajesh Chhabra, global business development leader of Inside Sales, Acronis said in a statement.

The report forecasts that attacks targeting remote workers are going to increase in 2021, ransomware attacks…

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CyCraft Japan joins the Nippon CSIRT Association

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TOKYO, Nov. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — CyCraft Technology, the fastest-growing cybersecurity firm in Asia, today announced that CyCraft JP has officially joined the Nippon CSIRT Association (NCA).

CyCraft Japan joins the Nippon CSIRT Association

CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team, Computer Security Incident Response Team) refers to a team of security analysts that not only deal with and respond to cybersecurity incidents, collect and analyze incident-related vulnerability intelligence, attack tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) but also formulate playbooks and carry out responses to security incidents.

In recent years, Japanese organizations have begun building and developing their own internal CSIRTs; however, cyberattacks in the 21st century are becoming more and more sophisticated and frequent, making it more and more difficult for one CSIRT to handle individually. Nippon CSIRT Association (NCA) was established to unify the intelligence, resources, and capability of multiple CSIRTs so that one CSIRT leveraging the intelligence, resources, and capability of other CSIRTs could overcome security incidents and increase Japan’s overall cyber resilience.

NCA is not the first CSIRT organization CyCtaft has joined. Earlier this year, CyCraft Taiwan joined the international CSIRT organization, FIRST (Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams). CyCraft Technology is not just committed to raising the resilience of global organizations but also committed to demonstrating trustworthiness, professionalism, and accurate and actionable threat intelligence, specifically in the APAC market.

About Nippon CSIRT Association

NCA was founded in 2007 with the primary goal of fostering cooperation, intelligence sharing, and strengthening trustworthy relations between CSIRTs in Japan to better facilitate prompt, intelligence-driven responses. NCA provides a secure forum for members to cooperate with each other and solve common problems collectively. NCA CSIRT team, from various organizations across multiple industries and fields, gather regularly at NSA conferences to discuss relevant and current threats and trends, observed attack behavior, attack and defensive playbook modifications, and more.

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